For 2 At St. Mel, Tourney Is Time For Redemption

Illya McGee was crying. Teammate Albert Jones was in a state of shock.

Their Providence-St. Mel team, the 1985 Class A state champion, had just lost a 63-62 overtime game to St. Gregory in the regional finals last year.

``That game stayed in me a long time,`` said McGee. ``I couldn`t sleep. I couldn`t read the paper. It really bothered me to lose that game.``

``It was like that movie, `Fast Break` ,`` said Jones. ``At the end of the movie, a team wins on a last-second shot. You see it in slow motion. The last eight seconds of our game was like slow motion, only we didn`t score. My mouth was open. I couldn`t talk. I couldn`t believe it.``

If the two seniors have not been able to fully accept the defeat, they have been able to overcome it. The 6-foot-5-inch Jones is averaging 22 points and 9 rebounds a game, and the 6-3 (``and one-eighth inch``) McGee has a 20 average for the Knights (22-3), ranked No. 1 in Class A by the Associated Press. By any standard of measurement, they are the two best small-school players in Chicagoland and are certain to make every Class A all-state team.

``That loss to St. Gregory makes this year so much easier,`` said McGee.

``Albert and I know we have to pull everyone else together when the time comes.``

That time is coming. St. Mel, which opens regional play Monday against Francis Parker, is expected to get to Assembly Hall in Champaign for the fifth time in six years and claim its second state title in three seasons.

There`s nothing like playing for a state championship. ``The ultimate experience,`` McGee said. ``Playing before a big crowd on television that goes around the country pumps you up so much. The stakes are so much higher than any other time during the season. It`s a great feeling, especially when everything is going your way.``

Although McGee and Jones are leading St. Mel this season, neither originally planned to attend the school.

McGee began playing basketball in 5th grade at Melody School at Keeler and Van Buren on the West Side, not far from St. Mel.

``I was thinking of going to either Crane or Marshall for high school, but coach Shields (former St. Mel coach Tom Shields) told me he would guarantee going Downstate if I played at St. Mel,`` McGee said.

After talking to his parents, McGee decided to enroll in the old four-story building that fronts Garfield Park.

When Jones was at the Dvorak school on 16th and Central Park, he played basketball ``but didn`t like it at all. I was going to go to Kennedy just to go to high school, and if I made the team, fine. If I didn`t make the team, so what.``

But Jones played in some postseason games at St. Mel, liked what he saw and enrolled. ``My parents liked the academics and how hard it would be for me,`` he said.

It was almost too hard for Jones his freshman year. He was pulled off the team by his father just before the state tournament because of bad grades. Jones thought of transferring to Farragut, but a friend persuaded him to stay at St. Mel.

To participate in sports at St. Mel, athletes can`t be content with a 2.0 grade-point average. Principal Paul Adams demands a 2.25. Jones has achieved that, and McGee has a 2.80 for the last semester.

Bill Ociepka, in his second year as St. Mel`s head coach, had both players on the frosh-soph level. He calls McGee ``a complete player. He`s so smooth when he drives he looks as if he`s walking on air. Before the season, I told him he`d have to develop an outside shot. He`s worked hard at it and is now comfortable up to 17 feet.``

Jones recently set a school single-game scoring record of 46 points.

``He`s a prolific scorer,`` Ociepka said. ``He could well be the best shooter on the team, but when you are the tallest player, you`ve got to play the post. I think he could be the best Class A player in the state.``

Partly because McGee and Jones are close friends, Akron coach Bob Huggins will receive the talents of both players next season. After McGee selected the Zips over Texas-El Paso and Marquette, Jones decided to go along for the athletic ride.

``Akron fits my style,`` said McGee. ``I like the quick pace of Coach Huggins and the running game. People ask me, why Akron, and I tell them it is a rising program.``

Jones likens the situation at Akron to that of De Paul in the early `70s. ``Then they got Dave Corzine, and they started to be recognized,`` he said.

Akron isn`t chopped liver. The Zips were 20-8 last year, losing to Michigan by four points in the NCAA tournament. They are currently 20-6.

``We basically run three players on the perimeter,`` says Huggins, ``so Albert figures to be a swing man in our plans, and we hope to make Illya a point guard.``

McGee and Jones, however, have some unfinished business to attend to before they move on. They want to end their season with laughter, not tears.

``I told my mother that this year it had to be now or never,`` said Jones. ``If it wasn`t meant to be for us to win last year, we couldn`t wait any longer.``